The Brass Legend

This was made about the time b westerns were in decline. I watched it just to see Hugh O'Brian (TVs Wyatt Earp)and Raymond Burr ( TVs Ironside). Not bad but but no where near being a classic. Hugh O'Brian plays the strong Sheriff and Raymond Burr as usual is very strong in the role of the bad guy Poor script and low budget show up throughout the movie. I must have been difficult at that time to put much money into a b western. Enjoyed watching for old times sake, alaways have a soft spot for the western.

Burr is fantastic is this movie. Not a large role or does he have that many lines. But his acting abilities really shine as a person who really should not have been born. The young actor portraying Clap Gipson looks like he is trying to act.- really bad.

A marvellous Western from Oswald, a director who brought an intensity and fluidity to the B-Western that seems impossible given the five-to-seven-day shooting schedule it and the equally impressive 'Fury at Showdown' (1957) shared. Burr and O'Brian are the baddie and peace officer respectively set on collision course, when O'Brian captures Burr only to have him escape. The action is breathtaking - the climax has Burr and O'Brian racing towards each other on horseback, guns drawn - but it is Oswald's assertive camera, creating a jail break in one long take, for instance, that one remembers.

Ph. H.

Routine Western with not much to recommend it, which is rather surprising since director Gerd Oswald has something of a cult following. The problem lies with a stone-faced O'Brien and an undistinguished script whose high-point comes in a gun jousting showdown along a country road. In fact, only bar girl Millie (Rebecca Welles, aka Reba Tassell) manages to inject some life into the proceedings. Too bad Raymond Burr's villain Tris Hatten doesn't get more screen time. He has all the makings of a good florid baddie. It's odd to see Burr in such a leering role after his career years as the super-straight Perry Mason. Anyway, the European-born Oswald plays the unfamiliar material of a Western in pretty straightforward, unimaginative fashion, when what's needed is something to lift the movie above the ordinary.

Hugh O'Brien plays Sheriff Addams--one of the few inhabitants of a stupid old west town. I say stupid because the folks don't seem all that bright and they seem to appreciate their sheriff about as much you'd appreciate Eczema!

Clay Gipson is a 12 year-old who happens to see the wanted killer, Tris Hatten (Raymond Burr). When he tells the sheriff, Addams is able to capture the baddie. Oddly, many of the townsfolk seem to feel sorry for Hatten--even though he's killed several people! As I said, it's a very stupid town!! So, the trick is to bring Hatten to trial and convict him--while at the same time Addams and Gipson remain alive to see it! But, the conspiracy of stupids is strong!!

The biggest weakness of this film is how fickle and stupid the townspeople were--a bit too stupid if you ask me. I also thought a few of the characters were ridiculous--such as Hatten's girlfriend (???). Clay's father wasn't much better. But, O'Brien does a nice job as does Burr--who is always great in baddie roles. On balance, worth seeing but far from a must-see picture.